BANKING
World Bank to cut staff
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced a net 250 job cuts on Thursday — the first major job reductions under his reorganization plans at the bulked-up development bank. Kim said in an internal memo that the bank would eliminate about 500 positions in its Institutional, Governance and Administrative units — including operations like finance and technology and oversight. In addition, about 70 currently unstaffed positions will be eliminated, but the cuts will be offset in part by adding 250 to 300 jobs in the bank’s operations center in Chennai, India.
ELECTRONICS
Sony quarterly loss expands
Sony Corp says losses for July-September ballooned to ￥136 billion (US$1.2 billion) as the company’s troubled mobile phone division reported huge red ink. The Tokyo-based maker of the PlayStation 4 video game machines, Spider-Man movies and Xperia smartphones had reported a ￥19.6 billion loss for the same period a year earlier. The results yesterday came despite a 7 percent increase in quarterly sales to ￥1.9 trillion as performance improved in cameras, TVs and game businesses. Sony stuck to its forecast for the year through March next year of a ￥230 billion loss.
ELECTRONICS
Panasonic profit halved
Panasonic Corp yesterday said its net profit plunged 52.2 percent to ￥80.9 billion for the six months to September, but it lifted its full-year forecast partially due to strong solar panel sales. The Osaka-based company raised its full-year net profit forecast to ￥175 billion from an earlier estimate of ￥140 billion for the fiscal year to next March.
BANKING
Citi profit falls on legal costs
Citigroup Inc on Thursday slashed its third-quarter earnings by US$600 million due to higher legal costs, citing “rapidly evolving” regulatory probes expected to result in more large settlements. Citi, which bested analyst forecasts with its Oct. 14 earnings report, lowered quarterly net income to US$2.8 billion from the originally reported US$3.4 billion due to the additional charge. The US$600 million is on top of the US$951 million in legal expenses previously reported, which itself was an increase from US$677 million in the year-ago period.
BANKING
RBS sets funds for FX probe
Britain’s state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has set aside ￡400 million (US$639 million) to settle allegations of price-rigging in foreign exchange markets, it said yesterday. RBS revealed in a results statement that litigation and conduct costs for the third quarter “included ￡400 million of potential conduct costs following investigations into the foreign exchange market.” RBS also said that net profit rebounded to ￡896 million in the three months to the end of September, buoyed partly by cost-cutting, after a net loss of ￡828 million in the same period last year.
BEVERAGES
AB InBev profit up 5.5%
AB InBev SA, the world’s largest beer maker, has reported a 5.5 percent increase in earnings for the third quarter, as higher selling prices more than made up for volume declines in Europe and Asia. Net profit at the brewer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona was US$2.5 billion, compared with US$2.37 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenues were up 2.3 percent to US$12.2 billion, as volumes fell 2.6 percent, but the company’s revenue per beer increased by 4.9 percent.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS